A hundred days may have passed since Laurent Gbagbo’s capture, but the former Ivory Coast ruler still casts a shadow over the fledgling government of Alassane Ouattara.
|||A hundred days may have passed since Laurent Gbagbo was captured in an underground bunker but the former Ivory Coast ruler still casts a shadow over the fledgling government of Alassane Ouattara.
The detention without charge of Gbagbo and members of his regime is drawing questions from rights groups and undermining a promise by Ouattara, sworn in as president in May, to firmly establish the rule of law and investigate crimes.
An estimated 3000 people died in a bloody four-month standoff when Gbagbo refused to cede power after elections in November.
Gbagbo was eventually captured in a hideout in Abidjan by forces loyal to Ouattara, backed by France and the UN, and is now under house arrest along with many others.
A video posted on the internet shows Gbagbo's son Michel and former head of the ruling party Pascal Affi N'Guessan being forced to do push-ups by their jailers in the northeastern town of Bouna where they are being held.
Human Rights Minister Gnenema Coulibaly said the video dated back to the first days of their detention and since the government intervened “they have been treated well.”
The former strongman is himself being held in Korhogo in the north and his wife Simone in Odienne in the northwest. They were captured in April with around 100 others, most of whom were released soon after.
Some 25 people were recently detained in Boundiali in the north, while about a dozen others were freed without charge.
Former prime minister Gilbert Ake N'Gbo and ex-governor of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) Philippe-Henri Dacoury Tabley are among a group recently charged with offences relating to state security and financial crimes.
As investigations continue, Ouattara and his ministers are under pressure from rights groups to clarify legal uncertainties surrounding the cases of those being held under house arrest.
“There is a growing divide between the Ouattara government's rhetoric that no one is above the law and the reality that justice appears one-sided,” the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement last month.
Those under house arrest are in “legal limbo,” said an international rights group official who did not want to be named, adding that there was no official list of detainees.
“It's the future of the Ivory Coast that is at stake here,” he added.
The government and the UN have begun visiting those in custody, and the International Committee of the Red Cross is awaiting authorisation.
But this is not enough for lawyer Herve Gouamene, representing the Gbagbo camp, who described the situation as a “victor's justice.”
The government, for its part, describes the detentions as an administrative measure to avoid potential “threats” and insists it wants to resolve the issue soon.
“The president is keen to see that these people's situations are quickly determined,” said Coulibaly.
“Investigating magistrates are hard at work preparing the charges against those who must be charged,” a judicial source added.
Ouattara on Wednesday created a commission of inquiry into crimes committed in the country's post-election stalemate.
The commission would hold “non-judicial inquiries” to shed light on how and why “such grave and massive” human rights violations could have been committed, said a cabinet statement, and report back in six months.
It added the probe must answer questions raised by rights bodies that have accused both camps of serious post-election violations.
Ouattara has invited the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate the most serious crimes committed during the crisis, while reserving lesser crimes for local courts.
It's a question of transparency, said a Outtara advisor. “If Laurent Gbagbo is tried in the Ivory Coast, there will forever be talk of justice to order.” - AFP
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